I know that you have all been wondering what the judges thought of Flica at the preschool pet show. I guess that they loved her since Madison won this ribbon for having the #1 horse. Flica was the only horse, but nonetheless, she won this beautifully crafted ribbon cut from construction paper. Madison has been so proud of herself and Flica. Last week, my Dad and Marsha came down from Davis, Illinois and spent an evening with us. They loved seeing how big the boys were getting and Madison loved playing with her Grandpa Ron. Aunt Julie and Aunt Laura even stopped by to say hello. Here's a picture of Aunt Julie holding Christian on a horse named Madison.

The boys will be turning 1 on Sunday and we are SO excited. Every morning Madison wakes up and asks how many more days until her brothers' birthday. She is very excited about their birthday party since she has run all the errands with me to make it possible. She has helped me pick out the cake, balloons, and paperware for this special occasion. We are all looking forward to it.

Yesterday

Yesterday I woke up to a wailing cry from Christian at 7:00 a.m. Why was I still sleeping- because I get to! His excruciating cry was caused by the pain that he was feeling from being constipated. His first constipation. . . and I know that it won't be his last! Poor little guy. I guess that his little body needs to get used to all that whole milk that he's been drinking. Both boys ended up being constipated so I really had to "baby" them and help them through it so we ended up being late to Madison's dentist appointment. The dentist office was fine about that, but Madison ended up practically kicking her way back into the back room. They were so kind to take a polaroid picture of her less than 3 minutes later and come out to show me how calm she was. Anybody have any suggestions for me to keep her calm and unclingy when she has to leave me? Its' so weird that this did not happen at age 2 or 3 for her, but instead at age 4. I know that she has had to transition to having 2 babies and less time with me, but come on! It's staring to weigh me down. Anyways-since my denist office is there too and sadly I know my dentist very well, I ended up bringing the boys over to say hello. They were such a hit that we ended up staying and chatting until Madison came out. She was very happy to say "I have NO cavities!" I just hope that she has Archie's teeth and not mine! We ended up staying a little longer watching the 4 beautiful deer that came to eat right outside of my dentist's window. The boys were laughing and started to pound on the window so I would say that they enjoyed them too.

Here is a picture of Madison and Lizzie the Lizard. She picked Lizzie from the treasure chest from all of the other toys that she could have gotten because she has been learning about pets this past month at preschool. She even ended up giving Lizzie a bottle when we arrived home since it was a baby lizard.
After the boys were in bed, Madison and I had to get ready for the pet show at preschool and teach her pet a trick for Wednesday morning . She wanted to bring Flica her American Girl horse so we had to comb her hair and put ribbons in it to make her look pretty. Since Madison is shy, I had her practice what she wanted to say and after a few times she made me get the video camera. That is amazing in itself! Since we have had the video camera in November, she ALWAYS hides from it. So, when she asked me to tape her TWO times I was quite excited. Who knew that horses can do somersaults in the air?
That was my day yesterday- oh- and I introduced the boys to raisins so hopefully our little problem will be long gone.

The boys are completely done with bottles and formula! No more bottle racks and bottle brushes taking up space on my countertop. Yeah! We made the transition from formula to 1/2 whole milk to all milk last week and took away their bottles completely this past weekend. I 'm a little sad to see my boys, my babies, without a bottle since they look so cute with it, but I wanted to make it as painless as possible for ALL of us. It worked. Since they were about 8 months old they have been using a sippy cup, so the transition wasn't too difficult. Not as hard as it was for Madison. . . and ME! Eeeek! I don't even want to remember those days of me trying to get her to drink from so many different types of sippy cups and her refusal to do so- until we tried a Jamocha shake from Arbys with a straw and that did the trick!

Not my little girl anymore- so she says!

Today I asked Madison if she was my little girl and she responded that she was my big girl since she was growing so much. She LOVES to remind me that she is a growing girl and that she can do SO many things on her own. Whenever I pick her up- yes, I still pick her up even though she is 44 pounds, she likes to ask me "Am I heavy?" When we go shopping for clothes, she loves to pick out the size 5s and 6s even though her "age" is only 4. She is a riot to shop with! I am so glad that she is growing up into a healthy, intelligent, sweet girl that is learning about who God is. I love to spend time with her as she is growing and maturing and asking SO many thought provoking questions. I am trying to live in these moments and hold them dear to my heart as much as I can since I know that they really are so short and she'll be in college before I know it. sigh- Here are some precious moments with my "Big Girl."

Whever the boys are in bed Madison has free access to her brothers' play yard, so she created another petting zoo for Archie and I to visit. This time however, she asked me to help her make name tags for each of the animals. We had names like Snowy for a white leopard all the way to Betty for a horse.

Here is a picture of Madison finishing her valentines for preschool. She picked out 3D dog valentines and heart pencils for each child in her class. Mostly on her own, she signed her name to each of the cards and taped the pencils onto the envelopes! She was very independent and both Archie and I were so proud of her!

This past Friday we went to her soon to be elementary school for Kindergarten Round up. We both were so excited about this little trip and had been anxiously awating it. When we got there Madison did not want to leave me, so they literally pushed her into a kindergarten room. Things may have not started out so beautifully, but she warmed up and met the 2 kindergarten teachers and when I picked her up, she met a little friend that she ran around the gym with. Since I don't know what is specifically happening for me next school year with work, I just hope that I will be able to bring my little girl, or big girl, to kindergarten for her 1st day. After Kindgergarten Round Up, we went to Chuckee Cheese where Madison decided to use almost all of her coins on this one horse. The horse actually moved and made you feel like you were galloping and jumping while looking at a screen with racing horses. She LOVED it and asked if she could put it on her Birthday list- anyone willing to purchase it for her?!

Who took his first step?

Drum roll please. . . .Caleb took his first step on Tuesday, February 12 around 5:00 p.m! I am so glad that he waited for both Archie and I to be home from work! It was wonderful to see Madison being so proud of her little brother and so encouraging. I was unable to get the camera out, but hopefully soon I'll be able to snap a few pics of both of them standing and maybe even some steps.

The Boys- Up Close and Personal

Christian and Caleb are really getting around and are so adventurous. They both love to play in the forbidden cabinet where their fruit puffs are. I turned around for a minute to unload the dishwasher, with Christian right behind me, and look where I found him. IN the cabinet! He opened up the door and climbed onto the bottom shelf and INTO the cabinet within seconds. He's fast! Later on the same child was caught under his brother's crib pushing out an empty storage container from out underneath.

How can you resist this little face?!

And his too!

They look adorable together, but don't let them fool you, they are wild boys with very strong personalities! But oh, how sweet they are!

Ok, Ok

Alright, I know that it has been a while since I have last blogged, but MANY things have kept me busy. To name a few, LOST has finally returned, had a crown put on my tooth, went sledding and snowmobiling, went out for a "Girl's Night Out," gotten back to working out early in the a.m. and trying to get to bed earlier (that's hard for me), starting to think about the boy's 1st b-day and what to do, voting, spending some good time with friends and their children, grading papers. . . oh yeah, being a wife and a mother! Ha ha!

Anways, here are some pictures from the past 2 weeks.

The last time I blogged, I was hoping for a Snow Day-but didn't get one. A few days later, my Snow Day became a reality. Since the Snow Day occurred on a Friday, Archie was able to take the day off of work so we decided to go to our cabin to snowmobile. Julie and my mom offered to watch the boys so we took them up on it. My friend Jenny came along with us and the 4 of us had a great time. Well, overall it was great being all together and making memories. . . but after going to 4 stores to fix one of the snowmobiles and it still not working after Archie put a few hours and so much effort into it, finding out that the snow was so light that when we rode the snowmobile we would get stuck because we sunk down to the grass, actually getting stuck and pinned against a fence and having to get Archie to help us out. . . .we were rather tired. But, the delicious Panera soup and cookies, laying down in the snow and looking all around at the snow-topped trees, and the nap that I had before going home was very relaxing. It was a memorable day with people that I love.

The next week we had more snow so we decided to get the boys on out there and try sledding for the first time. We are not too sure how much they enjoyed it, but we lasted 45 minutes until Caleb started to cry. I do hope that the boys love the snow as much as we do!

Here is Christian trying to decide what he thinks about his first time out on the hill.

Archie, Christian, and Madison had a BLAST going down the sledding hill. Well, I know that Madison did.

Here is Caleb before going out for his 1st sledding adventure. Isn't he a cute little king?

I was even able to go sledding between taking video and pictures. I'm getting a little crazy with our video camera and camera, but it's for a good cause- scrapbooking and blogging. I actually forgot my camera on this day and had to go back home to get it. Even though the sled hill is a few blocks from our house, Archie thought that I was being obsessive to go home and get it, but later he thanked me for doing so. Now I know how my mom feels about getting family pictures all the time. Maybe I 'll be more patient when she wants them in the future.
For all of you that have snow, don't wish it away just yet, make sure to take some time to enjoy it. Even if it's just watching it fall from outside your window as you sip hot chocolate. Remember, it will be gone soon.